SC to hear review of quashing of Mayawati's assets case

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear in open court a plea for review of its judgment, which had quashed the disproportionate assets case against former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati.

A bench of justices P Sathasivam and Dipak Mishra put up the review petition for hearing in courtroom on October 9.

"List the review petition in court on October 9, 2012 at 3.30 pm," said the order uploaded on the Supreme Court website.

The review petitions are normally decided by judges in their chambers and litigants and their counsel are not allowed to be present there.

The review petition was filed by Uttar Pradesh native Kamlesh Verma who was an intervener in the case filed by Mayawati in the apex court for quashing of the DA case against her.

Seeking review of the July 6 judgment, the petitioner has contended in his petition that the apex court had decided the case merely on technical grounds without appreciating the evidence collected by the Central Bureau of Investigation against Mayawati.

"The judgment under review belies the requirement of the public policy that cases of corruption by public servants cannot be dealt with by courts with a technical approach. The public policy rather required that even if there was some technical flaw in the investigation, the same could not have been given precedence over the overwhelming evidence collected by the CBI against Mayawati," the petition said.

"This court could not have simply let the accused go scot-free, thus, rendering the evidence nothing more than bundles of waste paper," the petition said.

In a major relief to BSP supremo Mayawati, the Supreme Court had on July 6 quashed a nine-year-long disproportionate assets case against her and had pulled up the CBI for exceeding its jurisdiction by lodging an FIR against her without any direction from it.

The apex court had said the DA case against Mayawati was "unwarranted" and the agency proceeded against her without properly understanding its orders, which were confined to the Taj Corridor case relating to the release of Rs 17 crore by the UP government allegedly without sanction.